Another great day of muaythai here in Pattaya with two of the bouts going down to the wire and winners going ahead by just one point at the end. Twenty-two universities were represented with some athletes competing at quarter-final stage which means medals are around the corner.  

The second bout of the day saw Javier Pinedo Blzquez (Spain) take on Hans Macatangay (The Philipppines) at 57kg in a really tense bout. In the luck of the draw it was Hans’ second fight but Javier’s first and maybe that made the difference between two equally-matched athletes. Javier took a well-deserved win on 29 to 28 points. Hans said later he almost missed out on this tournament because he’s graduating this year and has a heavy lecture schedule, but he added: Ï’ve no regrets, this was my last chance to be at FISU.”

At 63.5kg Poland’s Oskar Siegert met Abil Galiyev (Kazakhstan) in another fast bout, filled with heavy teeps and leg-work. Abil moved onto the semi-final again on 29 to 28 points. Two of his team-mates will join him as Almaz Sarsembekov and Ruslan Zayakin also won.
The Russian student team also put three athletes through to the next round: Alexander Skvortsov, Pavel Valeran and Mark Valovich.

Athletes from Nepal, Cyprus and Malaysia were also in action today.

In the only women’s bout of the day Thai athlete Yadrung “Chommanee” Teahiran faced Jenelyn Olsim from The Philippines. Chommanee won but had to work for every point, with Jenelyn driving in Teep-kicks and her right hand.

She said afterwards that she did her best, and she knew Chommanee is part of Muaythai Angels but she’s happy she tried. It’s hard to rationalise a loss in the immediate aftermath but if Jenelyn takes that attitude back to her studies, she’s sure to succeed.

All of these athletes are young and dividing their time between studies and muaythai, but it seems clear from talking to them that they’re taking the lessons of perseverance and determination from muaythai and applying that to earn academic success.

See full results here on IFMA muaythai    Or on the WUC Muaythai website.

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